I love these fitness videos by Yuri. There is a good amount of knowledge about wellness and the body.

But, now I’m wondering – What was the purpose of the gifted program? It didn’t really give those students that big a leap in school, did it? After middle school, they joined the rest of us “non-gifties” at Alton High School. What advantage did the gifted program offer them? Was their middle school training that much different than mine? And if so, how? I was in all of the honors programs with them in high school.

While I was young, I wanted to be in the gifted program. I wanted to be with the smart students. I was ahead of everyone in math. I was a darn good reader. I had mad art skills. (I could free draw a picture of Wile Coyote or Goofy life Bill Peet) I was an overall curious kid making good grades. Entering high school, I was 3rd chair clarinet. I wanted an intellectual challenge in school. Why was I denied this opportunity? Maybe I could have excelled in the gifted program.

A department store opened up 40 minutes from my city. It’s the same department store as the ones in Seoul; it’s nothing special. However, they are carrying the Californian Craft Brews for $5-6 bucks. One of ‘The Gap’ like stores was also having a t-shirt sale – 2 for $12. Therefore, I bought 4 shirts.

In the department store, 2 ideas bewildered me. The first was how many people were working there. I thought about how many jobs had been created or shifted from somewhere else in the city. The second was the wages of the workers. I wondered about their salaries. Mostly rich and wealthy people were shopping at this department store, and I couldn’t imagine that the workers wages could even compare.

Earlier in the week, I read an article about how many Western European luxury stores make a lot of money in Korea, and they give like 0.5% of their earnings back into the Korean community. That was the minimum amount. It funnels into the increasing gap between the rich and poor. Koreans are saving and spending their money on a status symbol handbag that makes Europeans richer. I just thought it was sad. That money could be better spent.

I consider this conundrum as I drink my California Craft Brew, Starbucks ‘Frappu-whatsa’, or shop at Costco.

Now that I have my Kindle for reading, I think that I only want Amazon gift cards from now on. I was thinking about how many books that I wanted to read and would have to ship to Korea. I usually bookmark books on my Amazon wishlist. It dawned on me that I could easily just download the Kindle editions.

Listening to ‘The Budos Band‘.

I would like to watch Season 2 of The Game of Thrones. But, I’m going to wait for this season to end and watch all the episodes back to back.

I’m almost finished with One Heartbeat Away.

The university students have midterm exams today and next week. I only have exams on Monday and Tuesday, so I should have a nice breather next week. Although grading 43 paragraphs each week is kind of a time suck.

I downloaded a thought provoking app called ‘Fish’, yesterday. Essentially, its just an essay about the way we ‘like’ and ‘love’ content on the Internet. However, it is set up interactively with only text and tapping.

I’ve a cold for the last week. It began with a sore throat then it switched to a snotty cough.

I’m applying to 2 different jobs for the Fall semester. They are top jobs. I don’t expect to be acknowledged by them, but if I do …

I watched the ‘At the Drive-In’ reunion at Coachella. And then I downloaded and rewatched it a number of times. I ‘love’ it.

I’m listening to The Mars Volta album Noctourniquet.

Then, SK and I were taking photos one weekend. I used to think that my facial features and smile resembled Dad. However this one photo made me think, “Holy crap! I look like Mom!”

YES!

After my Monday class, another teacher uses the same classroom and teaches the same book to different students. Her students arrived at the end of my class. Knowing a few of them, I asked, “What are you learning right, now, in class.” I had just been continuing my lesson on “lifestyles” and making comparisons with Korean lifestyles. The student replied, “Loneliness.” I scrunched my face with concern. “Loneliness?” I replied “What page?”

A few of the teachers apparently believe that we will definitely change the books, so they are skipping around to different chapters. If they are skipping around in the book, well then I guess we will have to change the books next semester, because whoever will teach the same book next semester is fucked. I feel that each chapter has something valuable to learn about and for the students to be able to convey when they are discussing topics. However, the half-wit teachers don’t see the values in particular topics. F*ing Idgits.

AND of all the chapters to teach from, you think “Loneliness” is one of the most important? Take a lap.

At the beginning of the semester nearly all the teachers were projected to teach an English elective: advanced speaking, intermediate writing, and intermediate to low Movie class. I was tasked to teach low Movie class with one other teacher. We planned to show The Incredibles, which I wasn’t enthusiastic about teaching. Nevertheless, I was going to go into it with enthusiasm.

As students registered for classes, many didn’t sign-up for my partner’s class and nearly 17 students had registered for mine. I felt a sense of pride in that, and his class was subsequently cancelled. After this event, being the only low Movie teacher, I decided to show ‘It’s a Wonderful Life‘ and ‘Toy Story 1‘. And, the secretary went through process of ordering the DVDs for me.

The first Friday of classes, 13 students attended. A few were on the attendance sheet, a few were not. And, that was alright for me. Maybe not all the students were attending the first classes on a Friday of the semester.

The second Friday of classes had a worse turn out. I heard from students during the week that many of the students were dropping the class. I considered what went wrong. Was ‘It’s a Wonderful Life‘ too old of a movie? Were the 1920′s dialects too difficult to comprehend? Or were the students just not passionate about taking a movie class which they learned was not required of them. (In their 1st year, all students were required to take an English elective. The 2nd year, it was no longer mandatory.) Only 6 students attended the second class, and my fears began to rise. The class was now in question of being cancelled with such few registered students and I was already teaching overtime.

This Thursday, I officially heard that 8 students were registered for the class. Those few who I spoke with seemed passionate about the class. Albeit, it was not enough, and the class was cancelled.

It’s a pity, because teaching Movie class was my favorite class. I had no stress or problems creating lessons for this class. I chose everything from the movie titles down to the lesson objectives that I considered of worth teaching and knowing. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the rest of the students don’t share the same enthusiasm that I have.

As an added addendum, only one elective class remains open and shall continue to – the intermediate writing class.

Claire asked me one time, “What’s a TED Talk?” and I believe this is one good example. They are video lectures that are usually only 10-20 minutes long. On Youtube, there is a new channel called TEDucation. These will be videos dedicated for classroom or simple learning purposes.

The chapter ‘I Pledge Allegiance to the Bag’ has an excellent observation of American culture.

Here’s an exert about the way humans learn their 1st language compared to their 2nd language.

I’d hoped the language might come on its own, the way it comes to babies, but people don’t talk to foreigners the way they talk to babies. They don’t hypnotize you with bright objects and repeat the same words over and over, handling out little treats when you finally say “potty” or “wawa.” It got to the point where I’d see a baby in the bakery or grocery store and instinctively ball up my fists, jealous over how easy he had it. I wanted to lie in a French crib and start from scratch, learning the language from the ground floor up. I wanted to be a baby, but instead, I was an adult who talked like one, a spooky man-child demanding more than his fair share of attention.

Last semester, I heard from one of the English teachers that we were going to have a meeting to discuss changing our books for the next semester. My initial reaction was “Why? I think we have a good thing going with these books, and they are – compared with other English learning books – good books!” The teacher said that Professor Soh had been hearing that too many cram schools were using these books. Some students were familiar with these books, and the students had used them before. Now, these books were first published around 10 years ago; They have been around the block. But, earlier in the semester, we were tasked to make textbook evaluations and give them to the students. I read my student’s evaluations from my classes, and none of the students had complained about these books. And, I’ve never heard any student complain about the books. The material, the content, and the presentation of these books is perfect for our teaching schedule. I told the teachers that during this meeting, I would let my voice be heard. I was against changing the books.

Nevertheless, during the meeting, Prof Soh didn’t change her mind. Apparently she didn’t care what I, nor the other teachers, had to say about this issue. We were going to change the books, no matter what. She laid out on the table numerous other English learning books that we were able to choose from. Without any regard for the material, content, or whether it was being used in cram schools, she asked us to choose a good book. I was liek, “WTF, Professor Soh, why don’t YOU choose one of the books since you’re the Head of the Department and you dictate what we’re supposed to be teaching.”

Two teachers chose a book, and I was not happy about their decision. Instead, I had a new book in mind. It was recently published and very similar to the format of our old books. I pitched the idea to Professor Soh in an email. She said that the idea was good, but we could only change the book if the other teachers approved of it. I sent them emails. They were like “Whatever.” (They really dont care about the books nor the details of teaching like I do.) So, we are now using a new book that I chose.

It erks me that Professor Soh has not said anything in regard to the content of this books or said anything to me face-to-face. I don’t want a congratulatory medal or anything, but a nice “Hey Mers, thanks for caring about books and choosing a nice new book” ought to be in order. However, she hasn’t said anything to me. Has she even looked at the new book? What does she think of them?

Secondly, Professor Soh has the most disorganised and waste-of-time meetings.

This Monday, we were scheduled to have a meeting at 2:30 on the campus. The purpose of this meeting was to “Meet the New Teachers” – that’s how the email title went. So, the 3 new teachers met the 5 old teachers. They were given their books for this semester and their schedules for the first time. And mind you, starting Friday, they have to teach. They have only 4 days to prepare. I thought that in this meeting that we would have some discussions about the classes and help the new teachers to adapt to the university courses. But NO! The meeting was solely a “Meet and Greet!”

We introduced ourselves, talked for a bit about our histories, and then Professor Soh showed the 3 new teachers to their office. The 5 old teachers remained in the meeting room. One said, “So, I guess we can go.” I retorted, “Nooo…, surely, they’re going to come back and we’ll discuss the classes.” But, when Professor Soh returned she said, “Ok, thank you for coming.” Again, I was liek, “WTF! Why did I have to come to the campus this afternoon just to say hello and not actually do anything.”

We, everyone, did stick around for a little while longer with Professor Soh in the meeting room. The 3 new teachers asked a few questions about the students, the teaching, and the university. One new guy was taking notes. Professor Soh said, “You don’t actually have to take any notes. We will discuss more about teachings in our weekly meetings once the semester begins.” I wanted to say, “But they have to teach this week! This Friday! They haven’t even seen these books, the syllabus, or any of the criteria! Don’t you have anything to say to them about lessons, setting goals for the students, or anything! What objectives do they need to meet in order to get to the end of this semester.”

She left the room. We were all still sitting their, and I was liek, “Damn. What is your job, here, Professor Soh? Take a lap.”

I’m a fan of the Korean boy band “Big Bang”. Here’s their new single ‘Blue’. Their album will be released in a week!!!!

A peeve of mine. When I meet a Korean for the first time, I hate when they ask “What’s your favourite food?” This is retarded and annoying. Who asks that? When I met people from Oregon and Oklahoma, no one asks that question. Then, I tell Koreans what Korean food I eat, and they reply, “Ohhhh! You know XYZ! Wow, you eat XYZ!” I’ve been here for 4 years, man. Gimme a break. You sound stupid for being surprised by such a mundane thing. Maybe I’ll just say pizza from now on.

I’m reading the ‘Game of Thrones’, which HBO made a series. The HBO series adhered to the book damn near perfect: scene for scene and word for word. It is as if the book was based on the TV series. Therefore, I’m trying to peel through the book as quick possible to get to the second book in the series. (However, I dont think I will have time before the semester begins)

A couple nights ago, I was helping SK with her English speaking. There was a chance that she may have an English interview to become a flight stewardess. While practising questions with her, I was puzzled by the announcement that she had no role models or aspiring figures. I listed my role models and explained why people would ask this in an interview. However, she still couldn’t come up with anyone. Curious.

I read ‘The Black Swan’. (No relationship to the movie.) This book was about the single instances that shake up the world or consciousness. When you see a swan for the first time, it will probably be white. You may live years only seeing white swans, and because of this it leads you to conclude that all swans are white. However, the presence of a black swan would change your perception of what constitutes as a ‘swan’. Is it still a swan? The book ran with this idea.

Reading the book, the author introduced the concept of a ‘flaneur‘, or ‘someone who strolls the city’. The word and concept of a ‘flaneur’ has stuck with me more than the book. I’d like to be a flaneur.

The price of Tillamook cheese at Costco keeps inflating. It’s now 16,000W for a 2.5 lb brick. It’s outrageous, but still better than buying lesser cheeses. I wish they’d just sell smaller bricks.

Speaking of Costco, I saw a Korean worker wearing the same Abercrombie coat (same coat, but with the red and white checkered pattern) that I purchased back home. Now, in Korea, I’ve yet to see an actual Abercrombie store, and there are many knock-off shirts. Yet, with no bold logos, I eyed his coat in a great interest with respect to the material and style. Sure enough, it was the exact same coat. I thought I’d bring to Korea my own original stylish Abercrombie coat, and in of ALL the places to be, I see a Korean wearing the same coat – working in Costco!

Last week, someone stole my athletic socks at the gym. I put them on the bench, showered for 4-5 minutes, and they were gone when I came back. There must have been no more than 2 people in and out of the locker room, and the trainer’s hadn’t tidied up. I believe the culprit to be this disgruntled old man who I don’t like. He’s a “little man” with a big ego. I don’t like the way he talks to people at the gym, and he doesn’t take exercising very seriously – I’ve watched him.

One day, some time ago, I was meditating in the sauna box with the lights off. He stomped in making all kinds of noise, putting his feet on the walls, and generally being rude. As I minded my own business, he spoke to me in Korean – in a tone that I didn’t care for. I replied “What?” in English, and ignored him. He proceeded to keep talking, and I didn’t say a word. After the sauna and showering, I got dressed. During this time, t felt like he was staring me down. He dressed slowly and faced towards me on the opposite wall. I dressed at a normal pace and he was still naked. Exiting, I walked past him and gave him the stink eye.

For this reason, I think he stole my socks last week. When I came out of the shower, he was sitting directly where they should had been laying. I looked all around and they were ‘gone’. He’s a “little man”.

That morning, I woke up and went about my regular routine. I made cereal, sat down, and checked the internet: It was a pretty average internet day. As I got ready to go to work, I jacked in Nano and put in my ear buds. On second thought, I thought that I’d leave my Nano behind. I had a lot of things to carry and concern with that day. As I unjacked the Nano, it slipped from my hand and hit the floor. I checked it, and it was giving me a blank white screen. It was still playing music, but I couldn’t get it to display a menu or anything: just a bright screen. It wouldn’t respond to any clicks.

When I arrived at school, no more than 30 minutes later, a coworker came into my office. He said, “Did you see the news? Your friend just died.” I inquired, “Who might that be?” And he said, “Steve Jobs” I declared bullshit, because I had checked the internet just before leaving work. There had been nothing in my RSS reader or the blogosphere about his death. But sure enough, I checked the latest news and it was loud and clear. Steve Jobs had past away.

Was his life somehow intertwined with my iPod Nano? I can only wonder…

All the teachers are told to issue grades on a curve. Each class, no matter, if they are high or low level students, should have A to C students. (Ds and Fs are at the teachers discretion.) One of the problems that arises is that if you have a class of high level students, who try hard and speak English well, it’s difficult to give Cs to some of those students. And one teacher, apparently, can’t do it.

The first semester, SK told me that XXX teacher gave As to ALL his students. Every class, every student got an A. WTF? We were told not to do this! What grading scale on tests, quizzes, debates, presentations, etc did XXX use that every student could get an A. XXX teacher was told to go back to his grades and give some Bs. He did, but only a few.

He created grade inflation, and all the students learned about it. Students not in his class complained. They said it was unfair to have a “harsh grading teacher.” Since, students knew that XXX teacher graded lightly, they sought out his classes. This semester, when we changed teachers, YYY teacher had a difficult time giving grades to students, because they said, “Ahh, but XXX gave me an ‘A’ last semester. How can I get a C this semester?” And even in my classes, I had some low students talk about XXX teacher and how they could have got an ‘A’ in his class. It was annoying.

From the beginning of this semester, the Head of the English Department stressed that all of teachers should be grading on a curve. As, Bs, and Cs. She said this numerous times. She talked about how students were talking. In the beginning, because SK had told me, I was the only teacher who knew what XXX teacher had done. I kept my mouth shut, but later, the other teachers slowly asked questions and had to find out from students what XXX had done with grades. In the last meeting of the semester, the Head of the English Department stressed this again. This time, I could see her staring directly at XXX teacher. I wondered, “Holy Cow. Is she calling him out? She’s looking directly at him. How awkward.”

After the final exams, when it was time to figure out grades, the 4 “good” teachers came to school. We got our curves and paper work finished. The other 3 teachers … were … not around. They didn’t have to be around, but where were they? What were they doing? Around the deadline to turn in grades, SK told me that XXX came in and turned in grades. She said it was all As and Bs. There were no Cs. I was just dumbfounded like “WTF?” What is wrong with you that you couldn’t give a single C to any of your students? What were you doing on quizzes and tests? SK notified the Head of the Department, and she said that XXX was going to get a personal email from the Director. Seriously, just WTF?!?

The other 2 teachers, apparently didn’t finish all that was required from them. Therefore, SK said she had to go back and fix their mistakes. If these teachers had been around and got their work done with the rest of us after the final exams, it is hard to imagine that they would have made these mistakes.

An interesting lecture by Susan Engel. It’s long, but very thought provoking in my mind.

- hapkido, yoga, pilates, dance, or general physical activity
- spend less time dicking around on the internet
- read more books
- cook more meat
- make $10,000 trading
- complete Sogang Korean 3B textbook
- Theory of Literature Theory
- Death with Shelly Kagan
- Hobbit Lectures

Some of these, I have not met or I’ve come close to completing. I have been going to the gym very regularly which has been great. That, in itself, has helped me to decrease the time that I dicked around on the internet. I have been reading more books. I finished ‘Tom Sawyer’ today. Breaking my iPod Nano and using the Kindle app has been a huge factor in this. Recently, I’ve finished the Steve Jobs book, Tony Hsieh book, and I read ‘Alice in Wonderland’ before that. So, when I have long or short commutes, I whip out the iPhone and read.

My biggest regret is that I haven’t finished that Sogang Korean 3B textbook. My Korean proficiency just hasn’t been improving as well as I would like it to have been. Every Saturday, I’ve been going to my Korean classes. However, I dont think that they help me that much. We use a different book in this class. There is too much grammar comprehension rather than practical usage and conversation. The Sogang textbooks are wonderful for conversation and critical thinking.

This year, I was delighted to get rid of one mutual fund. I bought it in 2007. It went down in the stock market. That wasn’t a bad think, but it never gave consistent dividends. Year by year, I expected some kind of return, but it never happened. Luckily, it did go over my initial purchase price and I sold at a small profit. But I got out of it at a good time. Over 4 years, it gave me next to nothing.

I haven’t been cooking much meat, but I have still been eating it. Every time I make a pilgrimage to Costco, I buy some meat and cheese. (You joke CJ, but Korea is lacking in deli meats and real cheese) I try to eat a little bit of meat and cheese each day.

For 2012, I’m probably going to keep the same goals. I think there is room for improvement for each of these goals. And these are the most fundamental for me.

YTN reports that Seoul plans to gradually sack all native English speaking instructors teaching English at elementary, middle and high schools throughout the city by 2014.

A Seoul Metropolitan Council official said according to a poll, students and parents preferred Korean instructors fluent in English over native speakers, and that the council plans to slash Seoul Office of Education’s budget for personnel costs for native speakers.

In the next fiscal year, the city plans to reduce the 30 billion won budget for native speakers by 4.9 billion won; it appears 707 native speakers—57% of the 1,245 total—will leave their schools.

I saw this in the news today. Of course, I’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Nonetheless, I do have a Cafe Bene stamp card. And if I go there, I might as well rack up my coffee points for that free coffee.

Today, SK and I were in Seoul and we were looking to kill time. There were many coffee shops around, but I thought “Let’s find a Cafe Bene over these other places. If we’re gonna drink coffee in a place that we don’t usually frequent, we might as well rack up some free coffee points.” And, we walk 15 minutes out of our way to a Cafe Bene.

I hand SK my coffee card. She buys the drinks and I find an open table. When she returns with the drinks, she sets them down and goes to the bathroom. As I’m looking at the tray, I see 2 Cafe Bene cards. I look at them and think, “Why did she get another card? She must have forgot about it. Oh well.” SK returns and we talk for a bit. As she is taking items off the try, she points at the card and the fine print at the bottom. The bottom of the card has the location printed at the bottom.

“Mother F%&$!!!” I was pissed.

We walked 15 minutes to go to this overpriced coffee shop so that I could get my card stamped, and they deny me because it’s not the same Cafe Bene location. And I got a new card to this location, which I’ll likely never come to again.

“Gosh Darnnit”

On top of that, the wi-fi was slow as molasses. The chair seat couldn’t fit between the table legs. I was trying to write in my notebook, and I had to sit on the edge of my seat, because the chair wouldn’t go in any further.

I hate you, Cafe Bene! The entire time I was there, I was pissed. Just stamp the f%&$ing card!